PERKINS TOWNSHIP -- What was initially believed to be an incident where a man attempted to lure a child into his truck, turned out to be a story about a dumb move.

On Friday, about noon on Douglas Drive, Perkins police were called about a man who may have attempted to lure an 8-year-old boy into his truck.

The boy was playing in front of his house when a truck driven by Matthew Clark, 41, of Sandusky, stopped outside of the house and Clark offered the boy a test dummy mask, a Perkins police report stated.

"The male asked (the boy) to come to the truck and (the boy) again told him no," the report stated. "The male then threw the item at (the boy) and left."

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When police arrived, the item was where it had landed in the driveway, said Police Chief Ken Klamar.

"It was some sort of mask that can be slid over the top of a crash dummy," Klamar said.

While officers were on the scene, Klamar called the Erie County Sheriff's Office and spoke with Sheriff Paul Sigsworth.

"I was giving them a call to make them aware of what happened and give them a description of the vehicle," Klamar said. "I was also going to call Sandusky PD, but the sheriff gave me the information I needed."

Sigsworth had pulled over a truck on April 28 that Clark was driving, according to the Erie County Sheriff's Office. There had been "several items in his truck that were of the same nature of the mask we had," according to the police report.

It was determined Clark worked in Huron for Humanetics, known for its designs and production of test crash dummies. He was scheduled to work at 3 p.m. on Friday, but called off sick, according to the report.

Clark eventually called the police after Friday's incident and told them that he knew they were looking for him and they could come and get him, Klamar said.

Police went to Clark's West Madison Street house and brought him to the station, where he said he was driving along Douglas Drive when he saw the boy playing in the yard, the report stated. He asked the boy if he wanted something to play with.

He reached behind his seat and grabbed the mask and offered it to the boy, the report stated. When the boy did not answer, Clark "threw (the mask) to him, not at him."

"He said the mask landed in front of the boy and he drove away," the report stated. "Clark stated as he was driving away he yelled to the boy to not scare his brothers and sisters with the mask."

Clark told the police that in retrospect, it was a bad decision to offer the boy the mask, the report stated. He did not intend to scare anyone or make the parents of the boy think he was attempting to take their child.

After the interviews were completed, Clark was charged with inducing panic and disorderly conduct, Klamar said.